NEW YORK STATE 



AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 



Ovid, Seneca Co., N. Y. 






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lleto fork State Slgnntltural College. 



CHARTER 



ORDINANCES, REGULATIONS 



COURSE OF STUDIES. 



1861. 




ALBANY: 

CHARLES VAN BENTHUYSEN, No. 407 BROADWAY 
1861. 



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OFFICERS. 

Chairman Board of Trustees, 

Hon. JOHN A. KING, Jamaica. 

Secretary of the Board, 

Hon. BENJAMIN P. JOHNSON, Albany. 

Treasurer of the Board, 

ARAD JOY, Esq., Ovid. 

Counsel to the Board, 

Hon. JOHN E. SEELY, Ovid. 

Executive Committee, 
M. R. PATRICK, Ovid, Chairman. 
JAMES 0. SHELDON, Esq., Geneva 
Hon. B. N. HUNTINGTON, Rome. 
Finance Committee, 
Hon. WILLIAM KELLY, Rhinebeck, Chairman, 
E. G. FAILE, Esq., West Farms, 
Hon. B. N. HUNTINGTON, Rome. 

Farmer, 

WILLIAM THORP, Ovid. 

Janitor, 

BALTUS PRIME. 



THE FACULTY. 

Maj. M. R. PATRICK, President, 
Director of College Farm. 

Rev. GEORGE KERR, LL.D., 

Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. 

J. P. KIMBALL, A. M., Ph. L\, 

Professor of Chemistry and Economic Geology. 

M. N. HORTON, A. M., 

Assistant Professor of Botany, $c 



BOARD OF TRUSTEES. 



Hon. JOHN A. KING, Jamaica. 

" WILLIAM KELLY, Rhinebeck. 

" BENJAMIN P. JOHNSON, Albany. 

" SAMUEL CHEEVER, Waterford. 

" ABRAHAM A. POST, Flint Creek. 

" JOSIAH B. WILLIAMS, Ithaca. 
EZRA P. PRENTICE, Esq., Albany. 
Major M. R. PATRICK, Ovid. 
ALEXANDER THOMPSON, M. D., Aurora. 
ARAD JOY, Esq., Ovid. 
RUFUS K. DELAFLELD, Esq., New York. 
JAMES 0. SHELDON, Esq., Geneva. 
Hon. BENJAMIN N. HUNTINGTON, Rome. 
E. G. FAILE, Esq., West Farms. 
Hon. JAMES 0. PUTNAM, Fredonia. 
Hon. AMAZIAH B. JAMES, Ogdensburgh. 



AN ACT 

To Incorporate the New York State Agricul- 
tural College. 

Passed April 15, 1853. 
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 

Assembly, do enact as follows : 

Section 1. John Delafield, Henry Wager, B. P. JoKnson, Wil- 
liam Kelly, John A. King, N. B. Kidder, Joel W. Bacon, William 
Buell, Tallmadge Delafield, Robert J. Swan, and such other persons 
as shall or may be associated with them for that purpose, are hereby 
constituted and created a body politic and corporate, by the name, 
style and description of the " New York State Agricultural 
College," and the said corporation shall have and enjoy all the 
corporate rights and privileges enjoyed by any incorporated college 
in the State of New York, and shall be subject to the provisions 
and exercise the powers and duties contained and set forth in tho 
second article of the fifteenth chapter, title one, of the Revised 
Statutes. 

§ 2. The farm and grounds, belonging and attached to the said 
College, shall consist of not less than three hundred acres. 

§ 3. The plan of instruction shall embrace the following branches 
of knowledge : Practical and scientific agriculture ; chemistry and 
its manipulations, so far as it may be usefully connected with agri- 
culture ; mathematics and mechanics ; surveying and engineering ; 
geology and botany ; the practical management of the farm, of the 
dairy, and of the various kinds of live stock ; also such other 
branches of knowledge as may be deemed useful and proper. 

$ 4. The persons named in the first section of this act shall be 
and form the first Board of Trustees. 

§ 5. This act shall take effect immediately. 



AN ACT 

To amend an act entitled "An act to Incorpo- 
rate the New York State Agricultural Col- 
lege," passed April 15, 1853. 

Passed February 5, 1857. 

The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and 
Assembly, do enact as follows : 

Section 1. The Trustees of the New York State Agricultural 
College are hereby authorized to increase the number of Trustees of 
said College from time to time, if they shall elect so to do, provided 
that the whole number of Trustees shall at no time exceed twenty- 
four. 

No such increase shall be valid unless a resolution to that effect 
be passed at a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees, at least 
thirty days prior to the time of making such increase, nor unless 
the Secretary or other authorized officer of the said Board shall give 
notice in writing to each Trustee, in the usual manner, of such pro- 
posed increase, nor unless a majority of all the Trustees then in 
office shall vote in favor of such increase. 

§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately. 



BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COLLEGE. 



Soon after the passage of the act of incorporation, Mr. John 
Delafield, of Seneca county, who had devoted much time and efficient 
service in procuring the act of incorporation, and much and most 
valuable service in the cause of agriculture in the State, was unani- 
mously elected President of the College. He, with the aid of the 
other Trustees, made considerable progress in obtaining subscriptions 
to the stock, when in the fall of 1853 he suddenly died. His death, 
a severe loss to the agricultural interests of the State, was most 
severely felt by his associate Trustees, and for a time almost 
paralyzed their exertions. 

In 1855, the people of Ovid, in the county of Mr. Delafield's 
residence, made an effort to obtain subscriptions to the stock for the 
College, with the expectation that, if successful, the Trustees, in 
locating the institution, would properly appreciate their efforts. A 
subscription was obtained, mostly in that vicinity, to the amount, 
together with that obtained by Mr. Delafield and his friends, of 
more than forty thousand dollars, for a College to be located at 
Ovid. They, through the agency of the Rev. Mr. Brown, Principal 
of the Academy at Ovid, and with the aid of the friends of the 
enterprise from different parts of the State, procured the passage of 
the act of 1st March, 1856, the first section of which provides that 
when the Trustees shall certify to the Comptroller that they have 
located said College in the county of Seneca, and have purchased 
a suitable site for it, with three hundred acres of land, and have 
obtained valid subscriptions to the stock to the amount of forty 
thousand dollars, which is paid or secured to be paid to the satis- 
faction of the Comptroller, and shall mortgage the land to the State, 
that the Comptroller shall loan to the Trustees the sum of forty 
thousand dollars for twenty-one years, without interest, out of the 
income of the United States Deposit Fund, not otherwise appro- 
priated, "to aid in the payment for lauds so purchased, and in 
constructing suitable buildings thereon for the uses and purposes 



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of said College," &c. This act was amended in 1857, and pro- 
vision made for advancing the money from the Treasury generally, 
the Deposit Fund failing to supply the amount. 

Although the establishment of such an institution for the educa- 
tion of the farmer and others had long been determined upon by the 
friends of agriculture in the State, this liberal and timely subscrip- 
tion to the stock, at Ovid, has enabled the Trustees to bring it into 
being at an earlier period than could probably otherwise have been 
done. In view of all the premises, they have located it in the town 
of Ovid, on the east side of Seneca Lake, and have purchased, in 
all, about seven hundred acres of land for its purposes. 

The farm is upon the western slope of the county, bounded west 
by the Seneca Lake, and persons may leave Albany or Buffalo in the 
morning, and, by the way of Geneva, reach the farm the same day ; 
or New York or Buffalo in the afternoon, and, by the New York and 
Erie road and the head of the Lake, reach the farm the following 
morning. The spot selected for the College is one commanding a 
view of great beauty and grandeur, taking in the town of Geneva 
and more than twenty miles of the Lake, and the whole eastern 
slope of the county of Yates and part of Ontario. Still, the spot 
is retired, and the Trustees think none the less desirable, for that 
cause, for the purposes intended. It is easy of access from any part 
of the State. 

All persons will concede that if an Agricultural College has 
attached to it a farm, either for purposes of experiment, illustration 
or means of employment to students, it is of the highest importance 
that it should possess the greatest variety of soil possible. The 
Trustees of the New York State Agricultural College felt the vital 
importance of this matter, and only made the selection they did 
after much deliberation. Had they selected a farm having no 
variety of soil, however fertile it might have been, or how complete 
all its other qualifications were, the general feeling would be that it 
was unfit for its purpose, or at least ill adapted to it. An article on 
the general features of the Botany of this farm, by Prof. Wm. H. 
Brewer, indicates the varieties of its soil and its adaptation to the 

purposes for which it is designed. 

The farm is about two and a half miles long, and extends east 
from the shore of Seneca Lake, the eastern end lying on the ridge 
between the Lakes, and has an elevation of about 550 feet greater 
than the western, the slope being gradual and the exposure to the 



west. A small stream, having its sources mostly beyond the farm, 
runs through it to the Lake. It is bordered in some places by dry 
grain land, in others by a narrow swale, while nearer the Lake it 
sinks into a deep rocky ravine. The immediate banks of the Seneca 
Lake form low bluffs, from the top of which the land rises gradually 
to the extreme eastern end of the farm at Ovid village. 

The rock underlying the soil at the western end of the farm, and 
which crops out at the Lake shore and in the ravine, is a soft shale, 
the '■'■Moscow shales" (of Prof. Hall, in his reports on the Geology 
of New York), belonging to the upper part of the Hamilton group." 
On this lies the " Tully limestone" an impure limestone, having a 
thickness on the farm of about eleven feet, half of which is suffici- 
ently compact for building purposes, and is burned for lime, which 
is being used in the construction of the College buildings. 

Above this lies the " Genesee slate" which underlies the upper 
part of the farm, or at least two-thirds of the land. This last is a 
slaty sandstone, very variable in both its chemical and physical 
characters, — varying from shale and slate to slaty sandstone, and 
even compact sandstone, thin strata of which are compact enough 
for building purposes, and indeed on the extreme upper part of the 
farm it has been obtained for this use. 

The rock, in places, has each of these characters, and varies by 
all possible mixtures and proportions of these ; hence, by its decom- 
position, forms some of the most fertile lands of the State. No 
better proof of this is needed than the fact that a large part of what 
is known as the "Genesee cotmtry" of central and western New 
York, a region of world-wide renown for its fertility, lies on the 
same geological formation, having precisely the same physical and 
chemical characters. 

These varied characters of the underlying rocks, combined with 
other causes, give great diversity to the soil ; there are consequently 
on the farm very dry soil, rather wet soil, thin soil lying near the 
rock, deep and rich soil, soil poor in organic matter and soil black 
with organic matter, sandy loam, clay loam, stiff clay, brick clay, 
hard gravel, &c, the details of which can only be made intelligible 
by a map. 

COLLEGE BUILDINGS. 

The College buildings, already completed and occupied by students, 
consist of two wings: the one 58 by 128, four stories in height; the 



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other 60 by 84^, three stories high ; and are calculated to occommo- 
date 150 students. The buildings are supplied with every needed 
convenience for the students. 

OUTLINE OP COURSE OP INSTRUCTION. 

The chief object of the institution is to provide a system of 
instruction essential and practically useful to the Agricultural inte- 
rests of the State ; to combine theory with practice ; to afford whole- 
some discipline to the mind, accumulation of knowledge, and habits 
of labor and industry. 

The course of instruction shall continue for three consecutive 
years, at the expiration of which, and upon the recommendation of 
the President and professors of the said College, the trustees may 
confer a degree or diploma, authorized by the Revised Statutes of 
the State, on all students who have completed the full course of 
three years, and received the recommendation above named. 

TERMS. 

There shall be two terms of study, annually : the Winter and 
Summer term. The Winter term, from December 1st to March 1st. 
The Summer term, from April 15th to November 1st. 

ADMISSION. 

Each candidate for admission to the College must be able to read 
and write the English language well, be well acquainted with its 
grammar and higher arithmetic. 

(An acquaintance with the branches of science taught at the 
academies and colleges of our country will prove a great advantage 
to the student on entering the Agricultural College.) 

No student shall be admitted under sixteen years of age, and each 
student must pass a satisfactory examination, and give evidence 
that his moral character is in like manner satisfactory. 

Each student on his admission into the College shall subscribe an 
engagement in the following form : 

" I (A. B.), now aged years and months, do hereby 

promise and agree, with the consent of my parent or proper guar- 
dian, that I will faithfully observe and conform to all the rules, 
regulations and orders of the New York State Agricultural College. 

" Witness my signature, this day of ,18 . 



" Witness, 

[" The parent or guardian."] 



[" Signature of the student.] 



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The charges for instruction, with board and lodgings, lights and 
fuel, will be two hundred dollars per annum, payable one half in 
advance ; or, if preferred, $75 for winter term, and $125 for summer 
term ; each to be paid at commencement of term. 

DISCIPLINE. 

In the administration and management of the College and farm, 
order and system should prevail ; and, as obedience and subordination 
are essential to the welfare and prosperity of the College, and to the 
comfort of all connected with the Institution, the students, and every 
person employed by the corporation, will be required to obey the 
President, professors and teachers, or other officers. Any refractory 
or disrespectful conduct will be treated acording to the degree of the 
offence, and incorrigible offenders will not be retained in the Insti- 
tution. 

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION. 

FRESHMEI CLASS. 
WINTER TERM. 

English language ; Arithmetic reviewed and completed ; Algebra 
commenced ; principles of Chemistry ; Botany begun. 

SUMMER TERM. 

Algebra completed ; Geometry; Trigonometry; Surveying; princi- 
ples of Chemistry continued ; Botany continued ; Drawing. 

JUNIOR CLASS. 
WINTER TERM. 

Analytical Geometry ; Physics commenced ; general Chemistry ; 
Agricultural Chemistry. 

SUMMER TERM. 

Physics continued ; Mechanics ; Agricultural Chemistry and 
Geology ; Mineralogy ; Botany ; Human Physiology ; Drawing ; 
Book-keeping. 

SENIOR CLASS. 
WINTER TERM. 

Agricultural Chemistry and Geology continued ; principles of 
Geology ; comparative Anatomy ; Zoology ; principles of Veteri- 






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nary Science and Art ; Book-keeping applied to the Farm ; history 
of Agriculture ; Rhetoric and Logic. 

SUMMER TERM. 

Astronomy ; Physical Geography ; Civil Engineering (Carpentry, 
Roads aud Bridges, &c.) ; Agricultural Chemistry and Geology ; 
principles of Geology ; Ornithology ; Entomology ; Drawing ; Intel- 
lectual and Moral Philosophy (including Evidences of Christianity); 
Constitution of the United States, and of the State of New York ; 
Laws of New York, relating to contracts, Real Estate, Highways, 
Fences, &c, &c. 

Although this is not intended to he a "Manual Labor School," 
the students will, nevertheless, he required to devote so much of 
their time to the daily operations of husbandry as will enable them 
to reduce the theories, acquired by study, to practical application on 
the farm. They will, therefore, at proper times, be taken into the 
field, under their instructors, and taught the uses of all kinds of 
farm implements. They will be taught to plow, to spade, to chop, 
to saw ; to sow grain, to plant ; the care of hoed crops ; gardening, 
gathering hay and grain crops, setting trees and shrubs, taking and 
preserving scions, root and stock grafting, budding, pruning and 
training trees and vines ; composting, preserving and applying 
manures, making fences and walls, draining and irrigation ; manage- 
ment of the dairy, care and feeding of store animals, fattening, 
breeding and rearing of stock, training of steers, loading wagons 
and carts, training colts for the saddle and for draught. 

This class of operations will, for the present, be under the special 
direction of the President, who being also Superintendent of the 
Farm, will not only be able to afford to students facilities for making 
themselves acquainted with the routine of its management, but 
give them, likewise, the benefit of all experiments made under his 
supervision. 

THE FARM. 

It is intended to divide the Farm into two divisions — one, to be 
the special Bphore of the Juniors; the other, of the Freshman class. 
It is intended that reduced maps shall be struck off from the Tupu- 



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graphical map of the farm, of which each Student shall have one, 
and be required to keep a record of his labors on his own half — 
cost, productions, value, and all the data for making a complete 
report at the close of the year. In this way each Student becomes 
thoroughly acquainted with the character of every portion of the 
farm, before entering the Senior Class. 

During the last term of the graduating class, they will be requir- 
ed to prepare from their maps and field notes, above mentioned, 
plans for laying out the grounds — having reference to aspect, soil, 
location, &c, with accompanying essays upon the cultivation and 
management of the whole farm, not only with an eye to pecuniary 
profit, but to rural beauty and effect of landscape. 

STUDENTS FOR LIMITED PERIODS. 

It is probable that many young men may desire to attend the 
institution for limited periods, to avail themselves of the facilities 
afforded them for instruction in agricultural science ; and such stu- 
dents will be allowed to fall in with the regular classes in recitation 
and instruction in the studies to which they wish to apply them- 
selves. To organize a "special course" for irregular students, or 
for any other, indeed, would require an extra force of Professors ; 
the "regular duties "of Professors on the "College course" being quite 
as much as can be attended to successfully. 



The President and Professors of the College will, as they may 
deem it important for the benefit of the Institution and the Students, 
suggest modifications of the course of studies, and submit the same 
to the Trustees, that the instruction may in all respects be such as 
to accomplish in the most thorough manner the results for which 
this Institution was founded. 



ORDINANCES. 

First. The government and management of the College shall be 
under the direction of and control of the President of the College, 
who shall be responsible to the Trustees for the general management 
and well-being of every department ; all matters of discipline and 
arrangement shall be under the control of the President, and all 
professors, teachers, officers, pupils and other persons employed shall 
be under his supervision and direction. 



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Second. Professors shall be appointed by the Board of Trustees 
to fill such departments as the Trustees may deem expedient. The 
Professors shall, in conjunction with the President, superintend 
vigilantly the moral conduct, industry and progress of each student, 
and other persons employed in the College or on the farm. The 
Professors shall, as often as may be required by the President, 
report to him the condition of their respective classes, in such form 
as he may from time to time direct. 

Third. A Chairman and Secretary shall be elected annually to 
perform such duties as the act of incorporation or the action of the 
Board may require. 

Fourth. A Treasurer shall be elected by the Trustees. It shall 
be the duty of the Treasurer to hold and carefully preserve all bills, 
notes, bonds and mortgages, or other evidences of debt, or obliga- 
tions or securities for personal or real estate, belonging to or held 
by the College ; he shall receive and deposit in bank all moneys 
received from any source for account of the College. He shall pay 
all drafts or orders on him, made by the Chairman of the Finance 
Committee, -which drafts shall always be drawn payable to the order 
of the said Treasurer, and be specially endorsed to the party entitled 
to receive the amount expressed in such draft or order ; he shall 
prepare, and present to the President on the first day of every month, 
a full and detailed statement of all moneys received and paid by 
him for or on account of the New York State Agricultural College, 
and exhibiting the true balance of cash on the said last day of each 
month. 

Fifth. A Finance Committee, consisting of three members, shall 
be annually elected by the Board, whose duty it shall be to audit all 
accounts against the College, and to invest upon approved securities 
any surplus money belonging to the institution, and generally to 
supervise its finances. 

Sixth. On or before the tenth day of January, in each year, a 
report shall be prepared by the Trustees, stating their proceedings, 
operations and expenditures, and including the last day of December 
then passed ; the management of the farm ; progress of the students ; 
also setting forth suggestions for the improvement of the institution, 
if necessary. 

Seventh. In case the number of applicants for admission of scholars 
to the institution shall be greater than can be received, a preference 
shall be given to the application of those who have subscribed to 



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the funds of the College, provided due notice thereof be given to 
the President. 

The Trustees feel, in submitting to the public the outline of the 
course of instruction and management of the College, that a great 
responsibility rests upon them. The subject of an institution for 
the instruction of the sons of farmers and mechanics, and others, in 
the great work before them, is as yet in a great measure untried in 
this country ; though, as far as the institutions now in progress 
report, there is every reason for encouragement. Upon the manner 
in which this institution, as well as others to be put in operation, 
shall be conducted, much depends. That an institution may be so 
conducted as to be the means of doing great good, and of securing 
the co-operation and cordial support of the farmers and mechanics 
of our State, we have great confidence. We shall have to meet the 
ardent expectation of many who will expect that a single year's 
operation will show great practical results ; and others will expect, 
it may be, that experiments of the most important character will be 
exemplified at once, on the institution being put in operation. To 
such we would say, the work connected with an agricultural institu- 
tion must, of necessity, require time to develop all that can be done 
for the proper instruction of the students, and for the satisfactory 
development of facts, which are to be ascertained from long continued 
and well conducted investigations and experiments ; and while we 
feel assured that a single year of instruction will be most valuable 
to every industrious and thorough pupil, yet we cannot disguise the 
fact that a series of years must be required to fully develop the 
inestimable value of an institution like this. 

The Trustees believe that the course of studies, a general outline 
of which is given, will be thorough and practical, so that every 
student shall be enabled properly to understand the great principles 
connected with agriculture in its every department, and how, practi- 
cally, to apply them in the management of the farm. It shall be 
their aim to select, as instructors, those who are competent to give 
such instruction, so that no portion of the work necessary to be 
understood shall be overlooked, and all who pursue a thorough 
course of study shall be able to carry out all the principles and 
practices deemed necessary and important for the farmer. 

To gentlemen interested in advancing the great interests of our 
country, as well as to the farmers and mechanics of the State, the 
Trustees look with confidence for the support of the institution, and 



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trust they will sec the importance of sustaining the institution by 
their contributions to its funds, as well as by sending to its halls 
tin 'ir sons to be educated in a manner which shall not only increase 
their usefulness, but place them in a position equal to the educated 
men of other pursuits. 

The President of the College, as well as the Trustees and such 
Agents as may be employed, will present to the public the subject 
of funds. The Trustees appeal to all Professions to advance the 
only institution in our State which is solely designed for the purpose 
of furnishing an education suited to the wants of the great majority 
of our young men. It is believed that the great interests of practi- 
cal education can in no other institution be more fully promoted 
than in this. 

The Trustees will be pleased to receive from the various Agricul- 
tural Associations in our country their Transactions for the Library 
of the institution, and from ethers such works as may be useful to 
the institution. 

Students, contemplating joining the institution, will be furnished 
with every necessary information by applying, personally or by letter, 
to Maj. M. It. Patrick, President of the College, Ovid, Seneca 
county, N. Y. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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